Frøystein

The farm Frøystein by the Ulvik fjord is commonly called Fryste. In 1614 the name was written Frøstemb – an obvious Danish influence – and the form Frøsten was used up until the land register in 1886 and 1907. It is probable that the name of the farm originally was Frystvin; a vin-name. Thus it has no connection with neither Frøy (Norse fertility god) nor stein (stone).

Holmen

HOLMEN AND THE KØLLE FAMILY Holmen lies by the fjord, innermost in Ulvikpollen. Originally this was a small smallholding or coast dweller’s place belonging to the farm Håheim. Major Johan Henrik Palludan obtained leasehold for a part of Holmen in 1773, and erected a grand house, as he was the head of Nordre Hardangerske kompani. In 1806 Mrs Palludin sold Holmen to the somewhat eccentric theologian Kristian Kølle, and thus the Kølle family came to Ulvik. Today the Kølle house in Holmen is gone, today it is the residence of the principal of the State horticultural school that occupies the ground – a villa in the dragon style from the turn of the previous century.

Vallaviki

When Anders Paulson Wallevik (1874-1965) took over the sloop “Haabet” after his father around 1900, he established a wide-ranging business, merchant, steamship agent, post manager, ship-owner, sloop skipper – and photographer. Without doubt it is as photographer he has left his mark.

Bukken

In Christian IV’s diary from Norgesreisa (trip to Norway) in 1599, we find the reference or anecdote that is the origin of the name Bukken. A Dutch full-rigged ship once passed the mountain outcrops on the island with the guesthouse so close that a ram grazing there jumped down on a yardarm (rånokk), thus the name “Buch van Raa!”

Glesvær- Trading post

Glesvær is one of the oldest trading posts on the West Norwegian coast. In the 1700s and 1800s this was the most important fishing centre on Sotra. The first certain mention of the trading station Glesvær is in 1664. At that time it was the Bergen merchant Hendrich Wessel who owned the place and was in the possession of a trading privilege. Abraham Wessel, who took over in 1688 also obtained Royal Privilege for “Kiøbmandskab med Bønderne alleene at drive” (the only one to be allowed to carry on trade with the farmers).

Golta- Long house

In the years between the wars a major registration of houses and house costumes, house construction methods, fireplaces and forms of housing clusters was started in West Norway – an ambitious mapping of everything that came under the name “Registration of Culture and Geography in West Norway”. One of the places of which material was gathered in 1938 was an old multi-room house at Golta; new and interesting material for the researchers from the Historical Museum, but well known within the local building tradition through several generations.

Goltasundet

For generations the land-seine was the most important tool for catching herring and mackerel, and therefore a suitable casting bay was worth its weight in gold. Goltasundet (the Golta sound) on Golta was such a place. Here the herring often drifted in and fantastic casts might be made here.

Trellevik

Boga

In the lightly undulating landscape at Boga there lies an old house with several rooms on a small rise. In fact it looks like three houses built into one another; a scullery, a living room and a store with a loft. From other sources we know that this house had covered passageways and sheds round all the walls in the 19th century; a compressed “long house” with inter-connections between all the rooms. This is a building style from the Middle Ages that we see traces of; a building corresponding to those we have seen remains of at Høybøen in Fjell and Lurekalven in Lindås. Bogatunet was restored in 2006.

Kolåseidet

The little cowshed which lies on the fence at Kolåseidet, constructed in connection with the stone fence, has put its mark on the cultural landscape. On the border between the home fields and the forest, the cowshed is the very symbol of a simple resource management - the division between the cropland and the grazing grounds. And the way it was built has its roots far back in time.